Menu

How Committed are Rich Countries to Development in Poor Countries?

Recently, this year’s Commitment to Development Index was released, which ranks rich countries based upon a number of factors, such as Aid, Trade and Environmental policies.

Northern European Countries, such as Denmark, Sweden and Norway continue to be on the top of the list. While South Korea, Japan and Switzerland are at the bottom.

Interestingly, New Zealand substantially outperforms Australia, while the United States and Germany are on par with Greece and Spain respectively.

The index shows that all rich countries could be doing much more to contribute to international development.

Background

Each year the Centre for Global Development, an international development think tank, ranks rich countries based upon how their policies enable or inhibit development in poor countries. The seven factors included in the index relate to Aid, Trade, Finance, Migration, Environment, Security and Technology. The latest rankings released in early January are shown in the Figure below.

The index measures rich countries commitment to international development beyond comparing aid levels alone, which dramatically alters the rankings of some countries. Luxembourg falls from 1st place based upon aid as a share of GNI to 18th place based upon the more comprehensive index. While Portugal moves much higher up the list to 6th place compared to 12th place when comparing just aid.

Importantly, this index shows that rich countries could be doing much more to contribute to international development. Every country performed poorly in at least one of the seven factors included in the index.